The fan mail didn't stop just because Iron Man was dead. If anything, they've increased in number.
The fan mail were sent to Stark Industries headquarters or the new Avengers compound, which were then screened by security, and then forwarded over to the people they were addressed to.
Tony had always received fan mail, gifts from fans, letters asking for help—but it was always the fan mail he liked to keep.
The gifts he sent over to charity, the cries for help he forwarded to appropriate agencies, but the artwork and the little notes... He kept those in his workshop or in his office.
He always read through each one.
It was a regular thing between him and Pepper. They would spend Sunday nights taking turns reading letters out loud and chuckling over something funny the fans wrote or drew.
Now, sitting on her bed alone in her room on a Sunday, Pepper read through the newest batch.
She was holding a drawing of Iron Man and smiled wistfully at a particularly heartwarming but humorous speech bubble that accompanied it.
She glanced to her right, automatically wanting to share her find with her husband, but found empty space instead.
She looked away.
That was how Morgan found Mommy, sitting on the bed that had tons of paper on it.
She cheerfully made her presence known, asking in a sing-song voice, "Whatcha doin'?"
Mommy dropped the paper she held and turned to Morgan who was now climbing up the bed.
"I'm reading some letters to daddy."
Letters to Daddy? Morgan sat beside Mommy, careful not to crumple the letters that were spread out.
Morgan scanned the letters on the bed. She picked up one particular artwork—colorful and eye-catching. "Who made this?"
"Other kids. They send daddy their drawings."
"Why?"
"Well, it's sort of like how when you draw something, you always show me and Daddy."
Morgan sent Mommy a questioning look. "Don't they show their drawings to their mommies and daddies?"
"I think they do. But then after, they send it here to us."
"But why?" Morgan didn't understand why they wouldn't tape it up on their bedroom wall like she did or put it up on the kitchen fridge.
"So that daddy can see how much they love him."
"But he's not their daddy! He's mine!"
Mommy lovingly cupped Morgan's cheek. "Oh, they know that. But he's not just daddy, you know. He's also Iron Man."
Morgan knew that. "Yeah and Iron Man saved the world."
"That's right. That's why other people always send Daddy letters even though he's not here anymore. They just want to say thank you."
Oh, Morgan thought. Saying thank you was good. You should always say thank you.
Morgan turned back to the artwork she held in her hands and wrinkled her nose.
"This is ugly," she said honestly.
It was, Pepper couldn't help but agree. Eye-catching and colorful, but not exactly nice to look at. One could say it was an abstract Iron Man.
But despite what she thought, Pepper said, "Morgan, that's not nice."
"What? You want me to lie?"
Morgan sounded so much like her father at that moment; her eyebrows even drew together just like Tony's would.
"Next time, we say 'I don't like this' because that's what you think. But the one who made it think it's beautiful, that's why he sent it over."
Pepper looked at the artwork again. It was so peculiar in design that she was certain Tony would have liked it.
"Let me keep that one. I think it's nice."
Pepper had been keeping fan art for a year now. They were framed and hung all over the company.
Morgan passed the drawing to Mommy and picked up another one. This time it was a drawing of a baby Iron Man followed by a short note at the side.
"Ana!" Morgan said, reading the name at the bottom of the paper. "It says Ana and a number eight. Why is there a number eight?"
"That means Ana drew this and she's eight years old. What else did she say?"
Morgan put her finger under the words as she read, sounding out the first letter of the word and blending it with the sound of the next letter just like how Ms. Monica taught her. "Dear Mister Stark, my baby brother was born today. We..."
"Named," Mommy supplied.
"Named him Stark after you." Morgan quickly faced her mother, grinning in recognition. "We have the same name!" A lot of people in school had the same names. There were two Samanthas and two Johns but never another Stark. This was so cool, Morgan thought.
"You do!"
Morgan continued reading, "We call him…Stark..ee..Starkee." She turned to Mommy for confirmation.
Mommy nodded. "Starky."
"Starky the Iron Baby. I want to bring him to your..."
"Company."
"To your company when he is big."
Morgan looked up at her mom. "If he's going to the company they'll call him Mister Stark cause they call me Miss Stark."
Pepper laughed, agreeing. She had originally felt weird whenever strangers came up to her saying they named their children after Tony, but Pepper knew her husband would have loved the attention.
"There can never be enough Tonys in the world, Pep," she could almost hear him say.
"Mommy?"
Pepper drew her focus back to her daughter. "Yes, honey?"
"Does Ana know Daddy's dead?"
"I think so."
"Why are the people sending Daddy letters if he can't read them?"
"Oh I think Dad can read them. But not in the same way we do."
"How?"
"Well, remember when I said his spirit went up to the heavens with the stars and the planets?"
Morgan nodded. "You mean his ghost." Daddy was a ghost now.
Pepper laughed, Morgan understood the concept of ghosts more than spirits. "Yeah, his ghost. When we write down a letter, the messages get sent up to Daddy."
"But how can he write them back?" Ghosts were see-through and couldn't touch anything.
"Oh, he can't, honey. But we can." Mommy brightened at an idea. "Do you want to write Ana back?"
Morgan sat up straight. "Can I?"
"Sure!"
"Can I make her and Baby Starky a drawing?"
"Absolutely!"
Morgan beamed. "Okay! I'll get my markers!"
She ran out of the room and came back with a notepad and her pack of scented markers.
Laying on her stomach on the bed, elbows propped up, she looked at Mommy. "What do I say?"
"It's up to you. What do you want to say to her?"
"I think Baby Starky is cute but he's too small to be a superhero. Maybe he should wait until he's big like me." Daddy once said that she couldn't have a suit of her own yet. But that was when she was four. She was five now!
"That's good advice."
With approval from her mother, Morgan started writing, occasionally pausing to ask Pepper how to spell some words. When that was done, she made a drawing of what looked to be an Iron Baby flying not with Iron Man, but with an unmistakable purple and silver suit—Pepper's own, Rescue.
Sitting back up, Morgan showed it to her mother. Mommy recognized the image immediately.
"Hey, that's me!" Mommy pointed out. "What am I doing in there?"
"This is Iron Mommy because Starky is still a baby."
Pepper laughed. "Don't forget to write down Iron Mommy or else Ana might not know who she is."
"Of course, she knows who that is, Mommy!" Everyone knew who Rescue was! But Morgan wrote down 'Iron Mommy' anyway, her unbound hair creating a curtain, hiding her face.
Pepper reached over to her night stand and got a ponytail. She moved to sit directly behind Morgan, spreading her legs apart so that Morgan was on the space between them.
While Morgan continued to write, Pepper started to gather her daughter's hair and Morgan paused to smile at her.
Mommy was better than Daddy in doing Morgan's hair.
Morgan could remember one time when Daddy tried to tie a lot of ponytails on her for Allie's birthday party.
"You look like a coconut tree," Daddy had said to her and Morgan had laughed nonstop.
After that, Daddy watched a lot of videos to fix her coconut hair.
"Can you make it a braid?" Morgan asked, reclining against her mother.
Pepper wrapped her arms around her daughter. "What's the magic word?"
"Shit."
Pepper immediately dug her fingers on Morgan's sides, the girl squirming as she shrieked.
"Please, please!"
"That's what I thought."
Still laughing, Pepper pushed Morgan back so she'd sit straight and Pepper could braid her hair. Meanwhile, Morgan finished the last touches on her drawing.
She got another letter to read and recognized a word when she was scanning it. "Look, Mommy! This one's got your name on it!"
Pepper tied the end of the short braid with the ponytail and then looked over Morgan's shoulder to read it.
"Dear Pepper," Mommy read, "Words cannot express how grateful I am for the role your husband played in saving the world." She glanced at Morgan. "He's talking about Daddy." She continued reading, "I know it cost him his life but it brought back mine. My son, Charlie, was three when he Vanished and because of your husband and the Avengers, he gets to live. It's been a year since Iron Man died and my son continues to sleep surrounded by his Iron Man toys."
"He's got Iron Man toys?"
"Sounds like it. Let's continue. I just wanted to let you know that your husband continues to make my son feel safe even beyond the grave."
"What's grave?"
"It's where we put Daddy's body when he died." Mommy read again, "Even in death, he watches over us all. I wish you all the best, Peter Hansen."
"What did that mean?" The letter sounded too grown up for Morgan's taste, not at all like Ana's letter.
"He talked about how Daddy saved his son Charlie. And Charlie was sad that Daddy died so he would sleep with all his Iron Man toys because he thinks that Iron Man watches over him that way."
Morgan nodded, understanding. She had Iron Man toys too and would kiss them goodnight before bed, just like how Daddy would kiss her when he was still around.
Enclosed with the letter was a photo of the boy, Charlie, asleep in bed, surrounded by tons of Iron Man stuffed toys ranging from an Iron Man build-a-bear to an Iron Man Tsum Tsum.
"Look, mom! He's got so many Iron Man toys!" Morgan said, her jaw dropping at the amount of Iron Man she could see. "Wow, he really does love Iron Man!"
"I know! He's adorable."
"Mommy, you should take a photo of me with my Iron Man toy too!" Morgan grinned. "And then we send it to Charlie so he knows that I miss and love Daddy too and that our Iron Man toys are watching over me and you when we sleep."
Pepper nodded, eyes turning a little watery. "You're full of great ideas today!"
Morgan giggled and tapped her temple. "That's because I'm smart." She climbed down the bed quickly, yelling at her mother to follow her to her room.
"Mom!"
"I'm coming!"
When Pepper got to Morgan's room, Morgan had already tucked herself in bed, excited to pretend to sleep. Morgan's arm was curled around her Iron Man stuffed toy and it was drawn close to her.
Pepper pulled out her phone and tapped the camera app.
"Ready?"
Morgan closed her eyes, head drooping downwards. One could clearly see the Iron Man plushie and Pepper took the shot.
"Done."
Morgan quickly kicked the covers away and stood on the bed, walking over to Mommy to see the result.
"Again! Again!"
They did a few different takes because Morgan loved to pose and wanted to get everything right. She got that from her father, no doubt.
Under normal circumstances, Pepper wouldn't send a complete stranger her daughter's picture. But this Peter Hansen had trusted her with an intimate photo of his son. She knew she could trust him with a photo of her daughter too.
After the picture-taking, Morgan took it upon herself to design a new letter to the boy named Charlie.
They spent the whole Sunday in bed, reading letters ("He's five years old too!") and critiquing drawings ("Look, Mom! His one eye is bigger!") and occasionally responding to some fans ("Can I have more paper, please?").
Morgan even kept some drawings for herself, her favorite being Iron Man riding a flying unicorn.
"I'm gonna put this in my room."
When she came back, she launched herself in Mommy's arms and kissed her on the cheek.
"Mommy, can we do this again tomorrow?" she asked. "I like reading the letters about Daddy."
"Tomorrow? You have school tomorrow."
"How about tomorrow's tomorrow?"
Mommy laughed. "You know, Dad and I used to do this every Sunday."
"Let's do it every Sunday too!" Morgan cried excitedly.
"Okay, okay."
"Yay!"
Morgan detached herself from her mother and turned to the remaining pile of fan mail.
Pepper ran a hand over Morgan's back but it wasn't too long before the little girl had gone out again, running to tape another drawing on her bedroom wall.
Tony may be gone, Pepper thought, he may not be around to open fan mail with her, but Morgan was.
This was their new Sunday.